


Trespasser

by literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte



Category: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Gen, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 09:43:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16720968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte/pseuds/literaryFRIVOLOUSneophyte
Summary: He died, and she awoke.





	Trespasser

She accepted that she would die for this, when she took the sword. But she didn't. No man ever trespassed this forbidden land besides the lord and his warriors come to destroy her, and no man would do so again. Where they saw a man dying, she was taking her first real breaths.

Light comes from the translucent sky - not from any sun or moon, but from the shimmering clouds, as if reflecting another higher canopy that glows within. Mono’s eyelids open with a soft sound, close and open again, as she blinks and raises a hand in front of her. Her lashes flutter, and her pupils grow small like black pebbles. She rises slowly, until her feet hang over the edge of the cold stone slab, and the doves take off in a white flurry of feathers. Her ankles flash beneath the hem of her dress, ebbing and flowing around her in the breeze. She looks behind her, and her hair covers her face in shadow.

The mountains stand in the distance, and the land between her and them rests in silence, except for the echoes of a hawk circling above and the clop of hooves nearby. Agro trots up the stairs and limps towards her with one leg held aloft. Her mane glistens in black waves, not matted with blood. Her flank is untouched by scars or even the dust of the bridge that collapsed under her.

Mono walks besides her horse to the empty basin and finds the horned infant, fists clenched tightly and eyes squeezed shut. She takes him in her arms, and together, the three of them ascend the stairs to the garden.

From the moment she sees the fawn, little brown ears twitching in her direction, she knows she can survive here. She has seen other animals: white-tailed lizards scuttling in the dirt and sand, black-shelled tortoises hiding in muddy shallow waters, and hawks following her always. But this is different, somehow. The grass is greener, the flowers are brighter, and the fruit-bearing trees are plentiful. The fawn feels like a promise.

Agro kneels before the stream to drink. The infant starts to wail, and she coos at him and rocks him back and forth. She removes Agro’s saddle for the last time and makes it into a cradle, softened with leaves and the wool of her cloak.

The sky never dims and night never comes. While the infant sleeps, she takes off her dress and wades into the water, and her reflection is clear enough to be another person. She combs her fingers through wet hair and thinks of fur, the damp scent of it, especially around the sigils where she drove her sword deep. They smelled musty and smokey like fire on the surface of a lake, tinged with expectation.

In the garden, the water is clean and pure, and she drinks of it so she can be too. She sits by the hole where Dormin’s voice shone through to the shrine below, thinking to herself: _here I am, the girl cursed to wander in the forbidden lands._ And she has never been happier.

**Author's Note:**

> replayed recently and found myself so interested in the language of "trespassing" as it relates to gender and how mono/wander feel like the same person


End file.
